Devoted largely to the story of the fictional Simpsons, this work traces the development of an average, American middle-class family, from the courtship of the eventual parents through the early years of the marriage, the births of two children and the evolution of the various relationships between its members. By the time Nichols, a teacher and practitioner of family therapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy at Albany Medical College, takes the reader into the treatment room with the Simpsons, revealing his own thought processes and method of therapy, he has thoughtfully examined the family's dynamics in regard to problems with the couple's parents and in-laws, the disciplining of their rebellious teenage son and the husband's extramarital affair. The author offers penetrating insights into the effect that families have on individuals and inspires with his notion that persons can transform family relationship patterns by changing habitual modes of response. The narrative, however, meant to read like a novel, too often rambles, bogging down with unnecessary details and repeating key ideas. (September)